2023 Polls: Lower Your Expectations From Results Of Opinion Polls, Firm Urges Nigerians

An independent analysis conducted by Economic Confidential has revealed that there is need for Nigerians to lower their expectations from the result of opinion polls.

In the report of the research which was presented on Sunday during a media briefing by the Managing Editor Abdulrahman Abdulraheem and Head of Fact-Check, Mohammed Dahiru Lawal, the firm stated that Nigerians should cast their votes and wait patiently for the results to emerge from appropriate authorities.

The report is coming just one week to the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections to be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The team analysed the polls by Nextier, ANAP Foundation, Premise Data (For Bloomberg), Stears Business, Nigerian Human Rights Community (NHRC), June Group Research and CASA.

Most of the Opinion Polls were on Peter Obi of Labour Party, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party.

In the report, the Firm observed that there is the fear that some people may see the polls as the ultimate result even before the first ballots are cast.

It stated that while some of the polls were defective in methodology, their promoters were obviously partisan which further create doubts on objectivity, fairness and credibility of the polls.

The report stated, “Similarly, some of the pollsters strangely share the same identity from their digital footprints

“Some of the pollsters had never conducted a poll before and lack the tested predictive validity from any previous experience.

” Unlike what one of the pollsters claimed, no presidential election in the history of Nigeria has ever been decided by a runoff.

“As we observed in PRNigeria report, the rash of unscientific opinion polls and partisan projections have heightened public anxiety and influence extreme optimism among candidates and their supporters, which could undermine national security.”

In it’s recommendations, the report urged Pollsters to deploy scientific tools and not partisan instruments for political campaigns in promoting preferred candidates.

It added, “Polls should contain standard verifiable indices and parameters including the sample size, the representativeness, geographical spread, age distribution, occupations of respondents, types of the questionnaire, the questions and the margin of error allowed in the final computations.

“As a matter of urgent national importance, we calling on Nigerians to lower their expectations from the result of opinion polls. They should cast their votes and wait patiently for the results to emerge from appropriate authorities.

“Stakeholders including the politicians, the media and electorates should eschew divisive contents, fake news and hate speech by promoting tolerance and peaceful coexistence for national stability

“No election is a do or die affair. Anyone who fails to win in the forthcoming election, may win the subsequent ones. And anyone who wins this must be magnanimous in victory and work towards uniting a deeply polarised nation.”